The Milli Majlis (National Assembly) has adopted at third reading an amendment placing fishing businesses in an exception category under the suspension of inspections regime.
“Operative Information Center-OMM” reports that draft amendments to the laws “On the Suspension of Inspections in the Field of Entrepreneurship” and “On Environmental Impact Assessment” were discussed at today’s parliamentary plenary session at third reading.
It was noted that the change would allow continuous oversight based on the principle of “from production to consumption” and help safeguard food security.
Under the draft, specific quantitative thresholds are set for environmental impact assessment (EIA) obligations in agriculture. The vague and subjective terms “specialized” and “large-scale” in existing legislation are removed. They are replaced by specific thresholds based on international practices, including those of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Bank and European Union directives:
For livestock enterprises: 1,000 cattle-equivalent animals, with every five small ruminants or other hoofed animals counted as one head of cattle;
For poultry enterprises: 40,000 chicken-equivalent birds, excluding the incubation stage; one ostrich counts as 25 chickens, one turkey or goose as five chickens, and eight quail as one chicken;
For fish farming (aquaculture): annual production of 500 tonnes.
The document states that agro-parks will be subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) only if their operations in the specified categories meet or exceed the relevant thresholds.
It was also stated that the administrative and financial burden on small and medium-sized farmers would be reduced. With the new quantitative criteria, small and medium-sized farms will no longer have to prepare costly, time-consuming EIA documents. This will allow the state to direct its oversight resources toward large industrial complexes that pose genuine environmental risks and increase the sector’s investment appeal.
The document was put to a vote after discussion and adopted at third reading.
